Developer kits (devkits) are slowly trickling out to developers, which is fair enough, as the platform that will follow Nintendo Switch will likely hit store shelves in 2024.

The Nintendo Switch, a hybrid platform that has since outsold the PlayStation 4, is slowly entering the last phase of its life, having launched in March 2017. Because of it, the big N is slowly working on a successor, and with that comes the possibility that developers will be able to see the platform’s performance through the dev kits. Thus there is less likelihood of their game essentially not running (slideshow, 8-10 FPS, that sort of thing).

Nash Weedle has previously been trusted on several occasions with Nintendo. He used to talk about Metroid Dread before the Japanese company announced it. On Twitter, he wrote that the devkit for the platform that will be the successor to the Nintendo Switch is already available in Spain at an unnamed studio. So Nintendo is not far away from unveiling its next-generation hardware. And it’s not hard to guess who might have the devkit: it could be MercurySteam. Since they’ve developed the last few 2D Metroids (including Metroid Dread), it makes sense that they would have the technology to develop.

Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa has previously said that the Nintendo Account system will make it easy to switch from the Switch to the unnamed hardware, which could mean that Switch games will be retroactively supported on next-generation hardware that Nintendo says will be close to the performance of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. This approach is understandable, as Nintendo hasn’t been pushing for the most powerful hardware since the GameCube (or even the Nintendo 64, as it was held back somewhat by using cartridges).

Nintendo’s new hardware has not yet been announced. Perhaps Gamescom might be some indication of this, as the big N will be at the event.

Source: WCCFTech